Game On

Game On is a series of short introductions to modern board game titles. Some of the entries are drawn from posts I wrote for the "featured game" at our twice weekly, and later weekly, games events at the Katoomba shop. Others are new. All offer my particular perspective and some insights into the world of board game publishing. I hope you enjoy them.

You are a team of adventurers who have come to a remote island in search of long lost treasures buried on the island by an ancient civilisation. What you do not realise, but will soon learn, is that the ancient people who buried these treasures built the island to protect the treasures from filthy thieving scum like you – so the island is trying to kill you!

Broom Service by Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister is a board game re-imagining of the earlier game Witches Brew. You are running a delivery service for Witch's potions and the heart of the game is the clever Brave/Cowardly mechanic behind playing your action cards.

Dixit is quick to learn, can be played in less than 30 minutes and has very broad appeal. It traces it's ancestry to the 19th century parlour game Dictionary but adds a delightful twist to it's inspiration through the use of quirky illustrated cards as the basis of the game.

Zatre is a tile laying game with dice pips on the faces of the tiles. On your turn you lay two tiles on the board trying to form rows or columns with a total of 10, 11 or 12 pips. This makes the game a little bit like a slightly mathy cross of Qwirkle and scrabble.